Introduction to Sociology

 

Professor: Allison McKim  

 

Course Number: SOC 101

CRN Number: 10218

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Olin 204

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

 

Crosslists: American & Indigenous Studies

Sociology is the systematic study of social life, social groups, and social relations. The discipline views the individual in context of the larger society, and sheds light on how social structures constrain and enable our choices and actions. Sociologists study topics as varied as race, gender, class, religion, the birth of capitalism, democracy, education, crime and prisons, the environment, and inequality. At its most basic, the course will teach students how to read social science texts and evaluate their arguments. Conceptually, students will learn basic sociological themes and become familiar with how sociologists ask and answer questions. Most importantly, students will come away from the course with a new understanding of how to think sociologically about the world around them, their position in society, and how their actions both affect and are affected by the social structures in which we all live.  

 

Wealth, Poverty, and Inequality

 

Professor: Yuval Elmelech  

 

Course Number: SOC 120

CRN Number: 10217

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Olin 204

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

 

Crosslists: American & Indigenous Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Human Rights

Why do some people face severe economic hardship and persistent poverty while others enjoy financial security and experience upward mobility? What are the patterns and sources of this inequality? Is inequality inevitable? Through lectures, scholarly works, selected video excerpts, and class discussions, this course examines the causes and consequences of socioeconomic inequality in the contemporary US. Sociological theories are used to explain how and why socioeconomic inequality is produced and maintained, and how it affects the well-being of individuals and social groups. The course will focus on two general themes. The first deals with the structure of inequality while studying the unequal distribution of material and social resources (e.g., social status, earnings, wealth, power). The second examines the processes that determine the allocation of people to positions in the stratification system (e.g. educational attainment, social capital, institutional discrimination, parental wealth).

 

Intro to Political Sociology

 

Professor: Karen Barkey  

 

Course Number: SOC 144

CRN Number: 10225

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 201

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis   

 

 

This course will address some of the central concepts in political sociology, especially those dealing with power, politics and the state. Political Sociology is about the relations between states and societies; issues of power and domination; the role of knowledge and power in state-society relations; state practices vis-à-vis society as well as the responses from below, i.e. the ways that social groups organize and respond to state policies and practices. We will start with the foundations, discussing power and politics.  Second, we will discuss the origins of the modern nation-state and the processes of state-formation across various regions of the world. We will then explore the advent of democracy and the constituents of democratic rule. Finally, we will explore how globalization has impacted each of these concepts. For each section, we will read a conceptual, theoretical piece and follow this with a historical or contemporary case study. The interplay between theory and case will give us ample opportunity to see how political sociologists define concepts and how they use them in their empirical settings. For each of these topics, I will require that you write a summary thought piece after the discussion.

 

Deviance and Social Control

 

Professor: Jussara dos Santos Raxlen  

 

Course Number: SOC 207

CRN Number: 10226

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 203

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

 

 

All societies establish norms of conduct for their members, and in all societies, some individuals violate these norms and experience sanctions for doing so. However, not all violations of norms are sanctioned. The sociological study of deviance examines how some people and behaviors come to be defined and labeled as deviant in certain contexts. The course addresses three critical questions: Who defines and decides what norms must be upheld, and what is deviant? How do those responsible for identifying and sanctioning deviant behavior understand or explain the sources and causes of deviance? And last, how is deviant behavior socially controlled informally (e.g., by peers) and through institutions (e.g., law, and police)? We will discuss how standards, explanations, and reactions to violations of social expectations of normality and deviance always involve relations of power. Topics include mental illness; cults; anti-establishment subcultures; neurodivergence; non-conforming sexualities; youth and delinquency; crime and policing; and public debates around morally controversial issues.

 

Sociological Theory

 

Professor: Jussara dos Santos Raxlen  

 

Course Number: SOC 213

CRN Number: 10227

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Henderson Comp. Center 106

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis   

 

Crosslists: Human Rights

What is “theory”? And what makes a theory “sociological”? As we shall see, we often theorize and apply existing social theories in our everyday lives. Simply put, a theory is a way of understanding: making sense of all kinds of social phenomena, from globalization to intimate interpersonal relationships. In this course, we survey a range of social theories: those which are foundational to the creation of sociology and all social sciences; those which focus on the rise and transformations of modern society in the 19th and 20th centuries; and those which are responses, critiques, or further developments of these other theories. Our exploration will follow a chronological order of western thought. But analytically, we will straddle between historical periods (and the equivalent classifications of “classical” and “contemporary” sociological theory) to emphasize the ongoing dialogue among different theoretical traditions and attempts to provide alternative and more nuanced explanations of an increasingly more diverse social world beyond a Eurocentric perspective. First, briefly, we trace the ideas that paved the way to the emergence of the social sciences from the European Enlightenment, which grappled with notions about the nature of political authority vis à vis the nature of humanity. Second, we delve into the theoretical accounts of a period often referred to as Modernity. We engage with the ideas of sociology’s “founding fathers” (Durkheim, Marx, Weber, and Simmel) and America’s “first” sociologists (e.g., Jane Adams, Du Bois, and Perkins Gilman). Once in the 20th century, we explore the theoretical conversations among sociologists and other social scientists to understand the realities of our recent past up until the present, considering various sociological traditions (e.g., functionalism, symbolic interactionism, critical theory, ethnomethodology, poststructuralism, postcolonial and feminist theory), and read their contemporary interlocutors.

 

Punishment, Prisons, & Policing

 

Professor: Allison McKim  

 

Course Number: SOC 224

CRN Number: 10264

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Reem Kayden Center 101

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

 

Crosslists: Africana Studies; American & Indigenous Studies; Human Rights

This course introduces students to the sociology of punishment and criminal justice. The amount and type of punishment found in society is not a simple, direct result of crime patterns. Rather, to understand how and why we punish, we must examine the ways that historical processes, social structures, institutions, and culture shape penal practices as well as how systems of punishment shape society. This course draws on sociological and historical scholarship to explore the social functions of punishment, its cultural foundations and meanings, what drives changes in how we punish and police, the relationship between penal practices and state power, and the role of the system in reproducing race, gender, and class inequality. The course digs deeply into research on the punitive turn in American criminal justice over the last 4 decades. We consider the causes and consequences of mass incarceration, its racial disparities, the drug war, the effects of intensive policing, the politicization of crime, changing gender dynamics, and the role of criminal justice in the welfare state. This course fulfills the Difference & Justice distribution requirement because a central task is to examine the role of racial inequality in the American criminal legal system.

 

Pain and Possibility: Black Feminism in Sociology

 

Professor: Jomaira Salas Pujols  

 

Course Number: SOC 279

CRN Number: 10224

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin 203

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

 

Crosslists: Africana Studies; American & Indigenous Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Human Rights

This course examines Black women’s contributions to sociological thought. We will have two major focus areas. The first is that we will engage and think through the theories, practices, and methodologies produced by Black feminist scholars, activists, and artists. Our goal here is to become familiar with multiple strands of Black feminist theories in sociology and to explore how Black women have used them as tools make sense of and address social conditions. Second, the course is concerned with attending to the social, political, and economic experiences of Black women. Using a comparative and intersectional approach, we will interrogate how Black women navigate and resist subjugation in areas much as medicine, education, the workplace, and criminal justice. Students will leave the course with a foundation in the major theories, methods, and analytic approaches of Black feminist sociologists.

 

Social Problems

 

Professor: Yuval Elmelech  

 

Course Number: SOC 332

CRN Number: 10265

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     3:30 PM - 5:50 PM Olin 309

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

 

Crosslists: American & Indigenous Studies; Human Rights

This course explores the causes, development, and consequences of various social problems in the U.S. Particular emphasis will be placed on the examination of disparities in socioeconomic status (e.g. education, poverty, employment, and wealth). We will begin with an introduction to social problems as a field of sociological inquiry and discuss the merits of problem-centered approaches to social research. Drawing on various sociological perspectives we will then identify the varied social structures that facilitate and help perpetuate social problems. In the remainder of the semester we will investigate specific social problems. Topics will include: wealth and economic security; schools and education; racial and ethnic inequality; work and employment; immigration and mobility; gender inequality; and social problems related to the family. The course will also provide a framework for developing the skill of academic writing, and the appropriate use of theories and empirical evidence. In particular, this seminar will serve upper-level students who are developing their research and analytical skills for term papers and senior projects. Fulfills American Studies Junior Seminar requirement.

 

Tricks of the Trade: Qualitative Research Practicum

 

Professor: Jomaira Salas Pujols  

 

Course Number: SOC 333

CRN Number: 10266

Class cap: 12

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      3:10 PM - 5:30 PM Olin 309

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis   

 

Crosslists: American & Indigenous Studies; Environmental Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Global & International Studies; Human Rights

To study social life, researchers often turn to methods of inquiry based on interviewing people, observation, or examining the meanings of texts like ads and news coverage. This course gives students instruction in how to conduct this kind of qualitative research, focusing on ethnography (participant observation), in-depth interviewing, and discourse/content analysis. The course is ideal for moderated students from various majors who plan to use these research methods for their senior project or those who are interested in pursuing social research in the future. The class offers both conceptual grounding and practical training. Students will develop and conduct a qualitative research study. To do this, students will engage epistemological questions about how we create knowledge and learn the nitty-gritty aspects of how to design and carry out research. These include techniques for taking field notes, conducting interviews, picking case studies, and interpreting and analyzing qualitative data. In the process, students will learn about debates over objectivity, power, inequality, and perspective in social research. The course offers training in research ethics and human subjects (IRB) review. Note: this course does not fulfill the sociology program 300-level seminar requirement. It does count as an elective.

 

Empires, City-States & Nation-States: An exploration of the social and political dimensions of Rule

 

Professor: Karen Barkey  

 

Course Number: SOC 348

CRN Number: 10267

Class cap: 12

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon       3:10 PM - 5:30 PM Olin 308

 

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis   

 

Crosslists: Historical Studies

Nation-states as territorially bounded sovereign polities are a relatively novel form of governance and since their emergence they have sometimes modeled themselves on larger scale alliances and unions that may remind us of empires. Empire, on the other hand, a different form of political organization, has existed since antiquity and has endured past the era of colonialism. They endured as layered civilizations, a bricolage of peoples and cultures, through violent expansion but also by creating some sort of PAX in international and internal political relations. Similarly, at a different scale, city-states were determined by geography and the absence of strong central political structures. They were organized around cities as centers of political, social and economic life and claimed sovereignty over a neighboring territory. This course will explore the three different models of political and social governance in historical and comparative fashion. We will first study concepts of state, power, and governmentality before we discuss cases. We will study exemplary cases of empire (The Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire); Italian city -states (as well as contemporary city-states) and then explore transitions to nation-states. Students will be guided to explore cases through comparative historical and political analysis.

 

Cross-listed Courses:

 

The Right to Employment

 

Course Number: ECON 227

CRN Number: 10678

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Professor: Kyle Mohr  

 

 

 

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Hegeman 204

 

Distributional Area:

HA  Historical Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

 

Crosslists: Africana Studies; American & Indigenous Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Environmental Studies; Human Rights; Sociology